Dreadfully Boring

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Of course this is a very bad movie by most conventional standards, but it did have a couple of redeeming qualities. First, the basic storyline, while a bit convoluted, does contain a kernel of authenticity: many artists of that era were blatantly ripped off by crooked managers, producers, promoters, record companies, etc. The scene in the ice skating rink I thought was surprisingly effective, in fact it almost didn't fit. And the closing shot of the teens doing the twist on the beach brought back memories of that era, since I was a kid growing up in Southern California at the time, and yes, people of all ages did the twist.

Yes, film fans, this one has it all and less. I want Arch Hall's hair. He had great hair. His singing could have been OK if he had a great producer like Leiber-Stoller or Phil Spector or Chet Atkins, but the soft ballad, high reverb with a Twist song and Rock and Roll format doesn't work. This movie needs a screamer like Little Richard to make it believable. Arch looks great in my opinion but many think he is not attractive. I think everyone will agree he is very likable. His dad acts OK but perhaps a script would have helped. I liked very much seeing Hollywood Boulevard in several scenes as it was in 1962. Much of that look still exists today. The cars are not as great now. Now, let's start a major debate. What was the worst part of this movie? Was it the background music? The ice skating sequence? The foreground music? The fight scenes? The three guys who wanted to be funny or maybe they were auditioning for the Bowery Boys Tour? This story has to be true. Nobody could make this up. I recommend it as a double feature especially with Arch Hall, JR in The Sadist. He actually could act quite well if he were given something decent to portray.

( Of course, the 9 stars is a register on the Inspired Bad Movie scale, not to be confused with Just Plain Bad Movies.)The movie should be titled Wild Hair since Hall Jr.'s blond thatch shape-shifts faster than Pampas grass in a windstorm. Bad films like this are not made, instead they mutate somewhere in a Petrie dish to menace the world. We're in Ed Wood territory here, the land of inspired bad movie-making. Just when you think the acting, directing, and dialogue can not get worse, they do. This is what happens when a determined band of no-talents sets out to commit a movie and does. The story itself is not exactly from Shakespeare, nor even from the guy down the block. An innocent hick arrives in Hollywood to find True love, Show-Business success, and Real values. Pity poor Hall Jr. who resembles nothing so much as the Pillsbury doughboy. Stuck with a face fashioned by a wine press, it seems he was forced into show-business by an ambitious father who should have been jailed for child abuse. The lad strives manfully, but the genes are against him. His high point comes half-way through in a cavernous stage left over from a 30's horror film. Posing there as a teen-idol with what can only be described as a battleship pompadour, he warbles a top tune from hell, while flitting around somewhere beneath is one of those girls who acts like she''s celebrating her brand-name underwear. I guess she was supposed to add an artistic touch. Together, however, they're beyond surreal. I could go on, especially about the three mental cases whose comic relief makes the Bowery Boys look like brain surgeons, but you get the idea. Yes, this is a bad movie classic, but at least not one of those big-budget prestige films that Hollywood used to turn out by the bucket-load that were supposed to impress you even as you slumbered along. Those were truly bad movies, easily forgotten. But inspired awful movies like Guitar can never be forgotten. Hats off to Arch Hall Jr. for quitting the business at just the right time. Hats off too, to whoever decided to debunk the artificial world of teen idols. You can bet no studio of the time with its record company sub-division would have dared anything so revealing about its bread and butter. I say we stand the Oscar statuette on its head, and hand one out to Wild Guitar for Best Bad Movie of 1962. It may be 50 years too late, but somehow that seems fitting.

Wild Guitar has great economic story telling. It only takes Arch Hall Jr an afternoon to become a singing sensation. He arrives in Hollywood and before he has a chance to even tune his guitar he's making his TV debut. By nightfall he's hooked up with a crooked manager and is well on his way to becoming an overnight sensation. Personally I think the cherub faced Hal Jr has more talent in his left pinkie than all the American Idol winners combined. He doesn't really play a wild guitar however. The skating scene nicely showcases Nancy Czar's talents on blades. It also reveals why Arch Hall Jr would never be up for the lead part in The Bobby Orr Story. Unless of course, his dad produced it.